Alumni Recognized For Service

Two former SHSU athletes and a current professor are among
those who have displayed outstanding commitment not only to
the university but to their respective communities as well
and have been selected to receive the 2007 SHSU Alumni Association
Service Awards.

Tickets for the event are $18 for Alumni Association members
and $22 for non-members. Reservations can be made by contacting
the Alumni
Relations Office by phone at 936.294.1841 or by e-mail
at alumni@shsu.edu.

Tom Freeman

Tom Freeman, a 1958 graduate with a Bachelor of Business
Administration degree, was the owner of Huntsville’s
Town and Country Cleaners for more than 20 years.

He is currently the owner of Freeman Investments, LLP, a real
estate development company, in Huntsville.

Representing SHSU “exceptionally well in the community,”
he has served as chairman for the Walker and surrounding counties’
“Share the Vision” capital campaign, on the President’s
Circle Executive Leadership Council, is a Samuel Houston Society
member, and a SHSU liaison on the Texas State University System’s
Governmental Relations Committee, according to his nomination
form.

“Tom Freeman’s consistent support for SHSU has
been demonstrated by his financial gifts to the university
and his tireless service on behalf of SHSU, especially with
the Capital Campaign,” his nomination form said.

His community endeavors include serving as a deacon and active
member of First Baptist Church; the Huntsville-Walker County
Chamber of Commerce for many years, for which he was president/chairman
of the board for a year; and director of the American Bank
for 10 years, as well as director for First National Bank
for five years.

James “Jim”
Hanscom

“Semi-retired” as chief executive officer and
owner of National Market Access, James Hanscom has “an
entrepreneurial attitude that has enabled him to build three
very successful companies in the industrial safety equipment
industry,” according to his nomination form.

Hanscom is a 1962 SHSU graduate with a Bachelor of Business
Administration degree. He also received his Master of Business
Administration degree from Pepperdine University in 1978.

A life member of SHSU’s Alumni Association, he served
on the board of directors for five years, during which time
he was a member of the committee that created the campus’
alumni garden, and was the organization’s president
in 2005. Hanscom is also a life member of the Sigma Chi fraternity
and is a past alumni president of the local chapter’s
house corporation.

His community endeavors include serving on the new clubhouse
building committee for Elkins Lake, on the Huntsville Item
Advisory Board for the past three years and he is a member
of the First United Methodist Church in Huntsville.

In addition, Hanscom is a past member for the long-range planning
committee for Elkins Lake, for the Republican Party’s
finance committee and is the past Republican Party precinct
chairman for Jefferson county, as well a charter member of
the Birmingham (Ala.) Sunrise Rotary Club, where he was chairman
of the organization’s polio inoculation committee.

His marketing company, National Market Access, which was established
in 1992, is now the largest contract sales and marketing company
in the safety and health industry in the country. Among his
current clients is Justin Boots.

Hanscom was also vice president and division general manager
of the Vallen Corporation’s Vallen Safety Division,
the largest industrial safety equipment distributor in the
country, and was president, CEO and owner of Safety Engineering
and Supply Company, a $25 million industrial safety equipment
distributor in the Southeast. He sold SE&S to Figgie International
in 1991.

Robert “Bobby”
Lane

A professor and former department chair for SHSU’s
agricultural and industrial science department for more than
24 years, Bobby Lane has worked to make a difference not only
inside the classroom but outside the classroom as well.

Lane, a 1977 Bearkat graduate with a degree in agricultural
education, was “instrumental in expanding the alumni
program in agriculture.” During his tenure on the
agriculture alumni association’s board of directors
the association contributed more than $10,000 to student
professional development activities, provided a $500 annual
ag alumni leadership award at the agriculture awards banquet
and hosted ag alumni annual gatherings in various Texas
cities for the past 12 years.

He received his master’s and doctoral degrees in agronomy
from Texas A&M University.

In addition, Lane organized and coordinated the first SAM
School for Successful Agricultural Management, a two-and-a-half
day collaborative educational program for beginners in ranch
management involving SHSU and Texas A&M faculty members.

He also coordinates the Area IX and State FFA Forage Evaluation
Career Development events on campus each year.

He has previously served
as president and board member of the Agriculture Consortium
of Texas and the American Association of State Colleges
of Agriculture and Renewable Resources.

“Dr. Lane is recognized as one of the leading agricultural
educators in the state and has had an exemplary career as
a classroom professor and academic leader at Sam Houston State
University,” a nomination letter said. “While
he was chair of the department of agricultural sciences at
SHSU, the program flourished, research blossomed, and the
students won many competitive awards for their knowledge and
skills.”

His off-campus accomplishments include leading mission teams
for the First United Methodist Church to Mexico, Costa Rica
and Alabama; serving as vice president of the Walker County
Fair Association, as well as on the Walker County Children’s
Protective Services board of directors for two years; and
writing a weekly column, “The Scoop on Agriculture,”
for three years for the Huntsville Item, among others.

John Magee

A retired music teacher for the Brazosport school district,
where he taught for 37 years, John Magee brought “pride
to that district from all over the state” and influenced
“thousands of students who never forgot him,”
according to his nomination form.

Magee received his bachelor’s degree from SHSU in vocal
music in 1950 and his Master of Music Education degree from
the University of Houston in 1954.

As a teacher, he developed a first class choral program at
Brazosport; directed award-winning “Sweepstakes”
choirs, which are ranked first division in both concert performance
and sight-reading; and led Freeport High School to a second
place in a statewide recording contest in 1950, which was
also recognized at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas.

After retiring in 1983, Magee’s influence spread to
the community, serving as music director for community musicals,
founding and directing the Brazos Area Boy Choir, being honored
with two huge reunions of his former choir students, serving
as the part-time music minister at three community churches,
and having the high school auditorium renamed the John Magee
Performance Center in 2001.

Also in 2001, the John Magee Choral Scholarship was established.
Eleven seniors at both Brazoswood and Brazosport High Schools
have been awarded the $1,000 scholarship, which is funded
by former students and friends of Magee.

“Mr. Magee epitomizes the true spirit of public school
teaching and has lived a life of dedication and commitment
to his students and to his profession of vocal music,”
his nomination form said. “His unusual accomplishments
started and ended in the classroom and frankly without any
great fanfare other than through the eyes and hearts of his
students. This, we feel, is what SHSTC intended when it prepared
and sent him into the world of teaching.”

Michael Murray

A former SHSU football and baseball letterman, Murray has
used his “fund-raising skills” to benefit both
the university’s Athletics Department and Lettermen
Association.

The Huntsville native came to SHSU on a football scholarship
and earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree
in 1970.

Murray has provided years of support for the university
and the Athletics Department and is currently the president
of the Lettermen Association.

He is initiating a skeet shoot tournament in August, in
addition to fundraising for the annual Lettermen Golf Tournament
in May, all of which benefits the Lettermen Association.

He is on the board of directors of Kat Pack and a contributor
to the Share the Vision Capital Campaign. Murray was also
inducted into the Bearkat Hall of Honor in 1993.

“He has shown his support for the continued success
of the football auction by donating some of the best selling
items, such as hunting trips, fishing trips and Astro baseball
tickets,” one nomination letter said.

Outside endeavors include work with the American Cancer
Society as a cancer survivor, the Rafiki Foundation, Living
Water International, and he is a member of the Houston Northwest
Baptist Church.

Murray has been in the insurance business since 1971. He
was vice president of Great Southern Life Insurance Company
until 1986, when he started his own insurance agency of Murray
Insurance and Financial Services, Inc.

He is a life member
and annual qualifier of the Million Dollar Round Table,
in addition to qualifying for the Court of the Table with
that association. He is an annual qualifier for the Grand
Council of the Texas Leaders Round Table. Additionally, he
qualifies each year for the National Quality Award presented
to insurance agents for their production and the retention
of business.

“As someone who has known Mike for 47 years and watched
him go through high school, college and his business career,
I can only say that character, discipline and hard work have
indelibly marked him as someone to admire,” another
nomination letter said.

Chris Thompson

A former “Player of the Year” for SHSU’s
tennis team and two-time “Coach of the Year” winner,
Chris Thompson serves the university and Huntsville through
getting her student-athletes involved in community issues.

Thompson, who earned both her bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in physical education in 1980 and 1982 respectively,
has been associated with the university for nearly 30 years.

The tennis coach for 16 years, she currently serves as the
associate athletic director, where she is responsible for
the athletic academic support program, oversees academic services
and NCAA compliance for the athletic department, and administers
the Bearkat Learning Enhancement Center, which works with
all student-athletes on class schedules, tutors, degree plans,
career selection and academic advisement.

Under her guidance, student-athletes have a higher grade point
average (2.9) than the regular student body, which was recognized
by the Southland Conference Commissioner through awarding
the university the Commissioner’s Academic Cup for the
past two years.

“The past two years, Sam Houston has led the league
in Commissioner’s Honor Roll selections,” her
nomination form said. “The hard work of Chris Thompson,
along with our student-athletes, has put our university in
this preeminent position.”

Stressing importance of community service to her student-athletes,
Thompson established the Bearkat Mentor Program in 1982, which
requires all freshman student-athletes to mentor to at-risk
students in the public schools; has “insisted”
that all of “her kids” participate in a local
food drive for the Good Shepard Mission since 1997; and in
2006, student-athletes hosted a dog show at the Rita B. Huff
Animal Shelter to raise money for a new facility.

“Her dedicated service above self-leadership to the
university is reflected by the exemplary drive she provides
to the university and community through achievement and professionalism,”
another nomination letter said. “Her open approach to
assist in many projects provides an atmosphere that enables
students and alumni to achieve their highest goals.”